Press Release: 7/9/2025
Testimony submitted to the Joint Committee on Election Laws in support of H.876/S.517 An Act strengthening the post-election audit process
The League of Women Voters of Massachusetts and our 44 local Leagues support improvements to the
Massachusetts post-election audit process (NCSL, 2025); improvements strengthen the election process
and increase voter confidence in the accuracy of election outcomes. This bipartisan bill would provide
important upgrades to existing Massachusetts post-election audits, including more comprehensive and
more frequent post-election audit provisions.
This bill is impactful because:
It would increase audit frequency and ensure that more races are audited, thus increasing the
chance of swiftly identifying any issues with equipment, methods, or fraud. In Massachusetts, audits
are currently only conducted every four years, after presidential elections. This bill would require a
hand-counted audit of randomly selected races after every state election and state primary and would even
include certain ballot questions. Audits check for issues with equipment and methods and serve as a
strong deterrent to fraud. (NCSL, 2025) This bill would also authorize cities and towns to perform
post-election audits of local elections, if they wish. Under current laws, municipal elections cannot be
audited.
It would require that “all ballots validly cast” are included in the audit, validating the integrity of
the election process for all voters. Currently, the law only requires that ballots cast on Election Day are
included in the audit. This bill would require that “all ballots validly cast” are included in the audit,
including any “cured” provisional ballots.
It would create a risk-limiting audit workgroup to study, report on, and pilot the use of risk-limiting
audits in Massachusetts. Risk-limiting audits “limit the risk that a contest is certified with the
wrong winner” (NCSL, 2024) and can make audits less time-consuming and expensive to conduct.
(NCSL, 2024) This bill would create a “risk-limiting audit workgroup to investigate future
implementation of audits which incorporate methods that afford a high degree of statistical confidence
that the reported outcomes in the audited contests are correct.”
The adoption of risk-limiting audits would bring Massachusetts into line with a growing number of states
– both red and blue – who employ this technique, including Colorado, Georgia, Maine, Nevada, Rhode
Island, and Virginia. (NCSL, 2024)
The workgroup will study risk-limiting audits, and can conduct, as needed, pilot audits of past elections to
support and inform their work. These audits would also provide an opportunity for election officials and
legislators to become familiar with risk-limiting audits. The workgroup will issue a report with their
recommendations by July 31, 2027. These are important steps toward the adoption of risk-limiting audits
for Massachusetts.
A special League task force studied and issued a detailed report on post-election audits in January 2009.
The 30-page report recommends “risk-limiting audits with escalation protocols... Audits should be
designed and implemented so that there is great confidence that any significant error will be
detected...Fixed percentage audits include insufficient audit units...in small or close races and
unnecessarily many units for landslide or large races.” The report recommended audits for “selected races
and ballot questions in all elections - primary, general and special.” (LWVUS January 2009)
Statement of Position on Voter Representation/Electoral Systems as adopted by concurrence by the 54th
Convention in June 2020: LWVUS promotes an open governmental system that is representative,
accountable, and responsive. We encourage electoral methods that provide the broadest voter
representation possible and are expressive of voter choices. Whether for single or multiple-winner
contests, the League supports electoral methods that: • Encourage voter participation and voter
engagement. • Encourage those with minority opinions to participate, including under-represented
communities. • Are verifiable and auditable. • Promote access to voting. • Maximize effective
votes/minimize wasted votes. • Promote sincere voting over strategic voting. • Implement alternatives to
plurality voting. • Are compatible with acceptable ballot-casting methods, including vote-by-mail.
(LWVUS, 2024, p. 57)
This bipartisan bill would strengthen the election process and increase public confidence in election
outcomes by making post-election audits more frequent and more comprehensive. The League of Women
Voters of Massachusetts and our 44 local Leagues encourage you to report this bill favorably.
References
National Conference of State Legislatures. (June 19, 2025). Post-election audits.
https://www.ncsl.org/elections-and-campaigns/post-election-audits
National Conference of State Legislatures. (September 6, 2024). Risk-limiting audits.
https://www.ncsl.org/elections-and-campaigns/risk-limiting-audits
League of Women Voters of the United States. (January 2009). Report on election auditing.
https://www.lwv.org/sites/default/files/2018-07/report-electionaudits.pdf
League of Women Voters of the United States. (2024). Impact on Issues.
https://www.lwv.org/sites/default/files/2024-12/ImpactOnIssues_2024-FINAL-DIGITAL.pdf